This invention relates to apparatus and methods for securing multiple straps to a housing. More particularly, the invention relates to a safety buckle for securing a child to a seat having waist and shoulder straps.
Child safety seats are designed to protect children. For example, car seats protect children during crashes by restraining the children to guard against the children being expelled from the seats during collisions. Typically, the seats also restrict the children from climbing out of the seat to ensure that the children are in the seat during collisions. Additionally, booster chairs, high chairs, infant carriers, etc., restrain children to reduce the risk of injury to the children, to inhibit the children from wandering off, etc. Thus, the term "seat" as used herein refers to any of a variety of types of apparatus for receiving persons, especially children. These apparatus may be presently known or yet to be invented and include, but are not limited to, car seats, booster chairs, high chairs, and infant carriers. To restrain the children, seats sometimes have five-way strap systems including two waist straps, two shoulder straps, and a crotch strap.
Present seats for children help guard against and reduce injury but present their own risks of injury to the children. For example, some seats have two shoulder straps that each have one of their ends fixed to the car seat frame and the other ends joined together, forming a "V." This configuration permits the child to become easily entangled in the two shoulder straps, risking severe injury such as strangulation. Some seats attach the left and right shoulder straps to the left and right waist straps, respectively. This arrangement also presents the risk of entanglement.
A need therefore exists for a seat system including a safety buckle arrangement that provides restraint sufficient to reduce the risk of injury due to external influences (e.g., a car collision) while also reducing the risk of self-induced injury to the child.